Recovery as a Road to Enlightenment

“Recovery as a road to enlightenment” – words chosen carefully to express what the journey has been for me. Just as I am not a proponent of the word “recovered” when used to describe my status in regards to my disease of addiction, I also don’t use the word “enlightened” when referring to my path through life. Neither of these actions is complete or stays constant. I am always in the process of becoming

Just as recovery began with a spiritual experience; the ability to ask for help, so does enlightenment begin with a moment of opening, of curiosity, of willingness. And like recovery, it is an exploration of self, of life, of opportunities and choices. Both set the stage in life for things to be different than they are, yet a future unknown. With courage, bit by bit, the future unfolds and the occasion for things to alter, to shift, to morph arrises.

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

Anais Nin

For those of us in recovery quotes about enlightenment sound as if they had been written about the exploration and acceptance of addiction recovery. We experience a “thinning of the clouds” and a healthy life reveals itself “fragment by fragment, on a small scale”. The first burgeoning experience may have been big,wild, a shock. There has been the occasional person who has had an initial sudden awakening, a burning bush, but mainly we are more familiar with the “educational variety” of spiritual experience. These awakenings have come slowly, “mini miracles” that have marked my way. In early recovery I had felt like my life was a 5,000 piece puzzle without the lid, I am now comfortable with it being a “laborious mosaic”.

There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take one with a heart.

and

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

Lao Tzu

I am on a quest: this quest is without end. There is no goal. The destination is each moment, the desire is to come to now. I do that in learning to know myself; in doing that I am practicing recovery, in discovering, uncovering my self.

This is good news for an addict and alcoholic like myself, for a woman who is working her way out of co-addiction and the challenges of that life. Days or decades – recovery for me is an active verb- much like enlightenment- it happens in the present.

Kyczy Hawk E-RYT200, RTY500 is the author of “Yoga and the Twelve Step Path”, “Yogic Tools For Recovery:A Guide For Working the Twelve Steps” and its workbook, and “Life In Bitesized Morsels”, a book on living life on life’s terms.